on the coffee table: “Following Ezra,” “Tender is the Night” and “Paradise Lost”
“Following Ezra: What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism and Love from His Extraordinary Son” is a great read for any parent, not just parents of special needs children. Nice work, Mr. Tom Fields-Meyer.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender is the Night” is where it’s at for me this week. I re-read “The Great Gatsby” awhile back, but I must say that “Tender is the Night” is closer to my heart. Also it’s funny, in the middle of all the pathos.
“Abe North was talking to her about his moral code: ‘Of course I’ve got one,’ he insisted, ‘– a man can’t live without a moral code. Mine is that I’m against the burning of witches. Whenever they burn a witch I get all hot under the collar.”
I’m grappling with John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” still. I can’t say “again,” because I remember loving this poem and flying through it in college. Wrote an amazing paper (no doubt) (ha), did cartwheels all around Satan, Adam and Eve. (sigh.) I’m reading it for book group, I have to finish it. (argh.)
Also reading Mikal Gilmore’s insightful and well-written profile of David Bowie, “The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust: How David Bowie Changed the World,” in the Feb. 2, 2012 issue of the Rolling Stone. I wish we were discussing that in book group, instead of “Paradise Lost.”
“…There were too many suicides (in my family) for my liking… as long as I could put those psychological excesses into my music and into my work, I could always be throwing it off.” — David Bowie, in 1993
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